Thursday August 6
We packed up and left the Mansion on Murphy around 10am for the 1+ hour trip back to Cairns. We checked-in to the Reef Hotel (part of the casino) but our room wasn’t ready so we did a bit of a walk then had lunch at Hemingway’s - which was quickly becoming one of our favourite haunts. Just as we arrived the hotel called to say our room was ready so after lunch we headed back to our hotel. Our room, a Junior Suite, had been upgraded to a Deluxe JS which was really lovely - it had a nice tropical Queensland decor and a large wrap around balcony overlooking the water - perfect setting for sundowners.
After settling in and unpacking we did a long walk along the waterfront then back to the hotel for showers, happy hour then dinner at Tamarind, the hotel’s fine dining restaurant - it was all a bit too Asian Fusion for our taste but with AccorPlus half-price dining we were happy enough.
Friday August 7
Up to a cloudy day with 50% chance of rain. We had a yummy brekkie at the Merchant Cafe in the hotel lobby - a great deal with the 50% AccorPlus discount.
As planned we drove to the tablelands to visit the famous Curtain Fig Tree then onto Eacham Lake (“full" of freshies - aka freshwater crocodiles) and did the 3k’s walk around the lake. There are signs to watch out for the crocs and a number to call if you spot one (implying they are very rare indeed) - almost as rare as the cassowaries - Dieter did spot one when we were in the area on our first stay in Cairns but I did not see it.
Then it was onto Lake Barrine for a light lunch at their famous tea house - avocado on sourdough toast for both of us - excellent - we finished off by doing the 5km walk around the lake - in ‘normal’ times (pre-Covid) they do boat tours on the lake but alas with no tour groups this is on hold.
We retuned to our hotel for an early happy hour on our terrace - then showers, TV news and dinner at Piato (on the boardwalk) - the coral trout (which we had on our last visit) was quite disappointing this time - seemed like a different fish altogether.
I must report that there was not a drop of rain all day so we dodged a bullet considering the forecast.
Saturday August 8
It was very cloudy in the morning but the chance of rain had been downgraded from 80% to 60% which was good. We had another excellent brekkie at the Merchant Cafe. We spent the morning at the Cairns Botanical Gardens - nice walks and great flora and fauna.
We had a long lunch at Hemingway’s - the bartender told Dieter that they may close due to lack of business - so sad. After a siesta and a game of scrabble we had our free welcome drink at Bar36 on the ground floor - atmosphere: 0 out of 10 - value: 10 out of 10. Later we had dinner at Ollie’s on the boardwalk - would have been very good except my daily special of coral trout was awful - when I sent it back as it came out almost raw I wasn’t even given an apology much less some sort of compo.
Sunday August 9
It was a similar sort of day weather-wise as Saturday except chance of rain was only 20% - should mean sunny all day - 22-28C - just another day in paradise. We did a relatively long bush walk in the botanical gardens (1.5+ hours) - nice - not too hot.
Back at the hotel - we just had some berries and yoghurt for lunch then played a bit of scrabble before a late afternoon walk along the waterfront. We had an early dinner at Hemingway’s (as they close at 8pm on Sundays) then off to bed early.
Monday August 10
Off to Mt Mulligan today.